Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Taoiseach to respect this House and to respect party leaders who are putting questions to him. I am asking him to give me a straight answer, unlike his last response, to a straight question that I will pose. He has stated that housing is the number one crisis facing people, young people in particular. He said that anything the Government can do in terms of housing, it is going to do. One of the things the Taoiseach promised to do was to deal with cuckoo funds buying up family homes. His Government eventually introduced a 10% stamp duty on the bulk purchase of ten or more homes. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, described it as a strong deterrent and stated that funds that try to get around the measures will be caught and prevented from doing so. However, now we learn that what the Government is doing is actually quite different. Instead of catching out cuckoo funds trying to evade this measure, it is actually helping them to do so. Cuckoo funds that lease homes back to local authorities will be exempt from the stamp duty increase. This Government is renowned for saying one thing and doing something else but this U-turn can only be described as brazen and downright dishonest.

In May, just two months ago, the Taoiseach told my colleague, Deputy Catherine Murphy, that he did not agree with local authorities entering long-term leasing deals. He stated, "No local authority should be on the other side of this, engaging in a long lease with these institutional investors." Later that month, he was clear that long-term leasing is "bad value", as he called it, and stated, "That is my view and I continue to make that clear." He has not done a very good job of making it clear, given that his housing Minister has quietly tabled an amendment to the Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021 that will actually incentivise cuckoo funds to swoop in, purchase homes from under the noses of first-time buyers and then lease them back to the State. The measures the Government introduced to limit the activity of cuckoo funds in the residential property market were the bare minimum that was required. It did not even bother to include apartments. Now we learn that even the bare minimum has been diluted and that the promises the Taoiseach made to the people to do something about the activity of these funds are worthless. Fundamentally, the Government cannot be trusted. Instead of helping young people trying to buy a home, it prefers to help the vultures seeking to profiteer on their misery.

I am asking the Taoiseach to show some respect and answer my specific questions. Does he think long-term leasing is unacceptable and bad value? Is that still his view? If not, when did he change his mind? Why should anyone trust the Government to solve the housing crisis when it cannot even be trusted not to amend its own reforms?

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